


Happy Birthday, Potter

by MagicGirlinAMuggleWorld



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Romance, Teen Crush, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-30
Updated: 2018-03-30
Packaged: 2019-04-16 00:38:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14152869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagicGirlinAMuggleWorld/pseuds/MagicGirlinAMuggleWorld
Summary: In which Lily is forced to admit (to herself, at least) that she may have a crush on James Potter, and in which James Potter is an adorable dork.





	Happy Birthday, Potter

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! This is a little one-shot I posted on tumblr already (I'm magic-girl-in-a-muggle-world over there, too), but I decided it will also be my first post here on ao3. I hope to post more often, and some longer stuff sooner than later, but I figured it was time to stop making excuses and post *something* over here, so here we are. Always happy for comments, feedback, and questions! Hope you enjoy :-) xo

27 March 1977

              For a variety of reasons, Lily Evans had been trying not to think about James Potter all day. Trying, and mostly failing. And now he was making it impossible, approaching her in the Common Room with a nervous smile on his face, hair rumpled as usual beneath a party hat with a miniature pair of glittery antlers attached.

              “All right, Evans?”

              “All right, Potter,” Lily replied. She cocked her head to the side and gestured at James with her chin. “Nice hat.”

              James beamed. “It’s my birthday crown,” he said proudly. “Sirius made it for me.”

              Lily’s lips quirked upward. “I’ll tell him well done.” Fixing her face into a mock-serious frown, she added, “You know, if you’re not careful, you’re going to accidentally take someone’s eye out with those things.”

              “Certainly not accidentally! I choose my targets very carefully.” James winked, and a laugh slipped out of Lily’s mouth before she could stop it. But before she could continue their banter, James awkwardly thrust a single sheet of paper in her direction. “So,” he said, with forced casualness, “Remus reckons you left this in the library.”

              Lily glanced at the paper, and her cheeks flushed red. Because staring back at her from the page was a charcoal sketch – _her_ sketch – of James Potter’s stupid, beautiful face.

              “Oh!” She snatched the drawing from his hands, wishing more than anything that she had already mastered Disillusionment charms, so that both she and the picture could just vanish from the Common Room, and then, perhaps, from Hogwarts entirely. “Thank you, I wondered where that had gotten off to.”

              This picture was, in fact, a big part of why she had spent the day trying not to think about this boy.

              Even though she’d been the one to draw it, she was embarrassed at how much attention she’d given to getting the details just right – the thick eyebrows, the crooked grin and equally crooked glasses. The near-constant twinkle in his eyes, like he’d just heard the _best_ joke and couldn’t wait to share it. The angles of his jaw, and the fullness of his bottom lip.

               She’d done a decent job, she thought. The problem was, this picture was not the work of someone who didn’t like James Potter. No matter what she’d tried to convince her friends – and herself – since the start of term.

              And then, as if simply knowing she’d created such an homage to this joyful, cocky boy with the messy hair weren’t humiliating enough, she’d _lost _it, returned to the dorm last night only to find that the few sheets of parchment she was carrying were blank, and there were no sketches hiding between the pages of her schoolbooks. Too mortified to do it herself, she’d had Mary retrace her steps to the library and back, but her friend had returned empty-handed.

              And now here it was. In _his_ hands.

              “I just—well, I’m—” Lily stammered, but she wasn’t sure what to say next. She wanted to justify it, to explain that she often doodled when she was procrastinating, that she’d been drawing everyone, she was practicing faces, and whose faces did she know better than her friends? But that wasn’t entirely accurate, not for _this_ drawing, and the words died in her throat.

              James was staring at her. “It’s really good.”

              Lily blinked up at him, surprised. “You think so?” she murmured. The last thing she wanted was for her stupid little crush ( _if you can even call it that,_  she scoffed internally) to feed James’ already enormous ego. And now that he had this, this proof that she spent time thinking about him when he wasn’t around, she fully expected him to take the piss. At the very least, she braced herself for a comment about how much better-looking he was in real life than when rendered by her inept hand.

              Instead, he sounded . . . sincere. “Of course! You’re a brilliant artist.” He was still looking at her intensely. Seemingly unconsciously, he reached up to ruffle his hair and was thwarted by his party hat. He let his hands fall to his sides, swinging awkwardly, and shrugged.

              And Merlin help her, Lily found it all kind of adorable. So, before she could think about it too much, she took a deep breath and shoved the sketch back into his hands. “Keep it, then. It’s for you.”

              James’ whole face lit up. “Yeah?”

              “Yeah,” Lily said shyly, her smile growing to match his.

              “Thanks, Evans.” He glanced between her and the picture in his hands, looking awestruck.

              “You’re welcome,” she said, turning away, hoping her expression was at least three-quarters less moony than it felt. She gave him a small wave over her shoulder and began walking towards the girls’ staircase.

              “Wait!” James called after her. She turned back, and he was waving the picture in her direction. He grinned his crooked grin. “You forgot to sign it.”

              Lily laughed and spread her hands. “You already know it’s from me.”

              “I know,” he agreed, eyes twinkling behind his glasses, “But when you’re a famous artist one day, I’ll want to sell this for millions, and I’ll need the proof.”

              “You’re absurd,” Lily said, but she was blushing again. In the corner of the page, she scribbled, _XO, Lily_ , and handed the sheet back to him. “Happy birthday, Potter.”

              Back in his dormitory, James hung the sketch next to his bed, tracing his fingers over Lily’s signature as he pressed the corner of the paper to the wall. He pushed his hat aside to get his hand properly in his hair, that most comforting of places, and his smile stretched from cheek to cheek. _Happy birthday, indeed._


End file.
